Interesting duel of poetry…
Beautiful sher from the immortal Mirza Ghalib –
“Zahid sharaab peene dey masjid mein baith kar,
Ya woh jagaah bata jahan Khuda nahin…”
(Let me drink sitting in the mosque
Or show me a place where God isn’t)
To which Allama Iqbal, who was far more conservative replied…
“Masjid khuda ka ghar hai, peene ki jaagah nahi,
Kaafir ke dil mein ja, wahan khuda nahin…”
(Mosque is the abode of God; not a place for you to drink
Go to a non-believer’s soul and drink, there is no God there)
And to which Ahmad Faraz put in the last words…
“Kaafir ke dil se aya hoon main yeh dekh kar
Khuda maujood hai wahan, par usey pata nahi”
(I went to the non-believer’s soul and this is what I saw
God was very much present there; just that he (the non-believer) was no aware of it)